What will Boris Johnson do? UK leader to unveil plans
Brexit deal, public spending top list
LONDON — British voters have given Prime Minister Boris Johnson a commanding majority. But they have little idea what he plans to do with it, apart from taking the U.K. out of the European Union.
Johnson won last week’s election with a pledge to “get Brexit done” by leaving the EU on Jan. 31, and with a broad promise to end years of austerity in public spending.
Now, Britain’s Conservative prime minister has to turn his vague election pledges into political reality. That will start Thursday, when Johnson’s government announces its legislative plans for the coming year in a speech read in Parliament by Queen Elizabeth II.
Anand Menon, director of the political think-tank U.K. in a Changing Europe, said that, with Johnson’s 80-strong majority in the 650-seat House of Commons, he can govern however he wants.
“But what we don’t know is what he wants,” Menon said Wednesday. “We’ve just had a so-called ‘Brexit election’ and yet we’re not entirely certain what kind of Brexit this prime minister wants to deliver.”
The Queen’s Speech — written by the government, but read by the monarch from atop a golden throne — will give the British public some idea of what drives Johnson, a politician whose core beliefs remain a mystery, even to his allies.
He sometimes acts like a Donald Trump-style populist — dubbing his administration a “People’s Government” and banning his ministers from attending the elitist World Economic Forum next month in Davos, Switzerland. But he also claims to be a socially liberal “one nation” Tory who welcomes immigration and wants Britain to be a leader in tackling climate change.
It’s unclear which Johnson will be uppermost in Thursday’s speech, which forms part of the ceremony-rich State Opening of Parliament. It usually takes place about once a year, but Britain saw its last state opening two months ago, soon after Johnson took over as prime minister from Theresa May through a Conservative Party leadership contest and shortly before the early election that returned him to power.
For the queen’s second visit this year, the pomp is being toned down. There will still be officials with titles like Black Rod and lords in erminetrimmed robes. But the 93-yearold monarch will travel to Parliament in a car, rather than a horse-drawn carriage, and will wear a hat rather than a diamond-studded crown.
A central piece of legislation will be Johnson’s Withdrawal
Agreement Bill, the law needed to make Brexit a reality. It must become law before Jan. 31 if Johnson is to stick to his timetable, and the government plans to hold the first significant vote on it Friday.
The bill commits Britain to leaving the EU on Jan. 31 and to concluding trade talks with the bloc by the end of 2020. Johnson insists he won’t agree to any more delays — a vow that has set off alarm bells among businesses, which fear that means the country will face a “nodeal” Brexit at the start of 2021.
Trade experts and EU officials say striking a free trade deal within 11 months will be a struggle. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called the timetable “extremely challenging.”
Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, said “it won’t be possible … in this limited time, to do everything. But we will do everything we can.”
Thursday’s speech is also set to include a bill to overhaul Britain’s immigration system after Brexit, when EU citizens will lose the automatic right to live and work in the U.K.
Beyond Brexit, there’s likely to be a spending boost for the National Health Service, which has struggled to keep up with growing demand during a decadelong funding squeeze by previous Conservative governments.